Women’s Conference, Winco, Chuys & Cards

I didn’t go to the temple this morning, b/c Liz came to pick me up at 8:40 so we could be to the church by 9:00.  They were having a Women’s Conference, and we decided to go together.  Liz was so sweet & brought me this bacon doughnut to try.  She said we needed to have some pre-breakfast in case they didn’t serve us brunch until after the conference.  I just LOVE her … a true friend that thinks the same way I do.

The conference was really nice & very spiritually uplifting.  We were all together in the chapel & got to hear some great thoughts from the Stake Relief Society President & then the Stake President.  There was also a beautiful & touching musical number of “Come, Ye Disconsolate.”  After that, they had us split into 2 groups.  Our group went to the cultural hall & went to a workshop about Finding Joy in Womanhood.  Then after that was over we switched and went into the chapel for a workshop about Finding Joy in Covenants.  For “brunch” they had grapes, individually wrapped pastries, chocolate, and drinks.  Liz and I got our refreshments and left so we could get home to our families.  I really liked this centerpiece on this table.  I’m so glad Liz & I were able to be there together.  She’s such a kindred spirit!!!

By this time it was 11:30, so Autumn & I ran over to McDonald’s and got some food and went and ate lunch w/ Mom up in her craft room.  Mom & I are big fans of their chicken wraps, and we had the sweet chili one today.  We like them b/c they’re light and filling and flavorful.  I don’t know what’s up w/ Autumn always pulling silly faces lately when I try to take her pic.  I guess I should just be glad she still lets me take her pic, b/c she probably won’t even let me do THAT when she’s a teenager.

After lunch we hopped in the car to run some errands.  We went to the new Winco that just opened up about 15 minutes from our house.  They have some really great prices, and we were super impressed.  I especially like all their bulk foods and already have lots of ideas floating around in my head on how to incorporate these fun and diverse candies into my Young Women’s lessons.

We went back to Mom & Dad’s house and made 2 batches of our favorite corn bread.  Autumn & I ran it over and dropped it off at the church at 6:00 b/c our ward was having a chili cook off/ talent show.  I had signed up to bring cornbread, but we weren’t able to stay.  I did manage to sneak a cup of my favorite chili from last year that someone brought again this year.  SO GOOD!

We went over to Deckers so Autumn could stay there and play w/ the girls, while us grown up girls went out.  Autumn loves to play w/ this little fuzzy purple puppet and was hitching a ride from Sasha the dog.

We were going out to celebrate Melanie’s birthday.  Her actual birthday was last week, but she had family plans that night.  She picked to go eat at Chuy’s, and it ended up being a CRAZY adventure.  We got there at 7:05 and put our name on the list.  They said it would be about 40 – 45 minutes and they were so busy that they didn’t even have one of those square things that lights up to give us.  So, we went and sat in the car and just talked and caught up on life.  Mary went back in at 7:35 to check and see if they were getting close to our name.  They said it would be about 20 – 25 more minutes.  Long story short, we all went into the restaurant at 7:50 to see if it was our turn.  They told us it would be ANOTHER 20 – 25 minutes.  Karri kind of went off on them and said they had told us that already and that we needed to be seated.  They apologized and said they had to seat a party of 20, which was why it was taking so long.  We stood to the side of the desk and talked while we waited our turn.

Mary kept looking over at the list we were on, and they kept seating people that had come in after us.  After 15 minutes, Mary went up to the desk (we didn’t send Karri b/c she would have gone off on them) to ask when it was our turn.  She pointed to the list and asked why people that came in after us were being seated ahead of us.  They said it was b/c those were just parties of 2.  Mary said that was unacceptable & that we had been waiting for over an hour.  The one girl at the desk was completely rude and just rolled her eyes at Mary, looked away, and started helping someone else.  Luckily there was another hostess there that saw the whole thing and said she would get us seated right away.  We FINALLY got a table at 8:30!!!

Luckily, we had helped ourselves to a menu while we were waiting and knew what we wanted and placed our order right away.  We had a FABULOUS waitress who kept our drinks filled, and got us extra creamy jalapeno dressing to dip our chips in.  We got our food and started eating when I noticed that the table across from us was getting loud and rowdy.  I noticed they had cans of silly string in their hands, and they were waiting for a friend to show up for his surprise birthday party.  Mary & Karri told them to be careful and make sure not to spray us.  They promised they would be careful.  Well, you can guess what happened next … the birthday boy shows up and they spray him like crazy.  It got all over Mary’s back, on her face, in her food, and in Melanie’s hair!!!  The worst part is that there was a manager standing there and saw the whole thing happen and did nothing to stop it.  She walked by and said she was sorry, but that was it.  I thought Karri was going to blow a gasket.

We finished our meal & when another manager came by to ask how things were, we told him the whole story about the horrible hostess and how we got sprayed w/ silly string.  He just brushed it off and made a joke instead of offering to comp us a meal or drinks or something!  Needless to say, we were NOT HAPPY w/ the whole situation.  I HATE confrontation and never make a scene about stuff like that.  But, we all made sure to fill out the feedback cards and let them know how disappointed we were.  I’m glad the evening was salvaged by having a great waitress and good food.

We finally got out of there at 9:30 and went back to Karri’s house.  Melanie wanted to play cards, so we played Hand & Foot.  Autumn laid down on a trundle bed upstairs, and we ended up playing cards until 12:30 am!!!  I am going to be so stinkin’ tired tomorrow, but it was worth it to hang out w/ the girls.  We laughed so hard and were so loud and rowdy.  I love these ladies more than I can put into words, and their friendships mean so much to me.